How can you use competitive analysis to improve your voice search optimization?

1 Identify your voice search competitors

The first step in competitive analysis is to identify who your voice search competitors are. These may not be the same as your traditional SEO competitors, as voice search algorithms tend to favor local, authoritative, and mobile-friendly sites. You can use tools like SEMrush, Moz, or Ahrefs to find out who is ranking for voice search queries related to your niche, industry, or location. You can also use voice search devices or apps to test how your site performs for different questions and commands.

2 Analyze their content and keywords

Once you have a list of your voice search competitors, you need to analyze their content and keywords to see how they are targeting and answering voice search queries. You can use the same tools as before to find out what keywords and phrases they are ranking for, how they are using them in their titles, headings, meta descriptions, and URLs, and how they are structuring their content. You should look for long-tail keywords, natural language, and question formats that match the way users speak and search.

3 Evaluate their user experience and technical aspects

Another important aspect of competitive analysis is to evaluate how your competitors are providing a good user experience and meeting the technical requirements for voice search optimization. You can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, Mobile-Friendly Test, or Lighthouse to check how fast, responsive, and accessible their sites are on different devices and browsers. You should also look for features like HTTPS, schema markup, sitemaps, and robots.txt that help voice search engines crawl and understand their sites.

4 Identify their strengths and weaknesses

After analyzing your competitors' content, keywords, user experience, and technical aspects, you should be able to identify their strengths and weaknesses in voice search optimization. You should look for gaps, opportunities, and threats that you can use to improve your own voice search strategy. For example, you may find that your competitors are ranking well for certain queries, but their content is not relevant, engaging, or comprehensive enough. Or you may find that they are using voice search features like featured snippets, FAQs, or local listings that you are not.

5 Implement and monitor your voice search strategy

The final step in competitive analysis is to implement and monitor your voice search strategy based on your findings and insights. You should use the best practices and techniques that your competitors are using, but also try to differentiate yourself by creating unique, valuable, and user-friendly content that answers voice search queries better than them. You should also test and optimize your site for speed, mobile-friendliness, and voice search compatibility. You should monitor your voice search performance and rankings using tools like Google Search Console, Analytics, or Voice Search Rank Checker.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?